A/N: I am sooo sorry this took so long. Dad made us go through an electronic deprivation for 5 days, and I haven't been able to get any of my stories done. DX I have also had some writer's block, and this may not be that good, but we'll see Enjoy!
Since the Autobots didn't know the exact coordinates to the Decepticon warship, they decided to bridge Rumble to a secluded area of Jasper so that he could contact Soundwave via private commlink, so as to not arouse suspicion among the other Decepticons of Rumble's whereabouts.
Rumble had waited for less than a click by a nearby mountainside before Soundwave, Frenzy, and a deployed Lazorbeak emerged from the swirling green vortex of the Decepticon's ground-bridge.
It took even less than that for Frenzy to run up and embrace him in a tackle hug, muttering something about 'losing him to the Autobot filth.'
Rumble tried in vain to shove his brother off of him, so he instead waited for Frenzy to calm down before he tried to get up again. To Rumble's dismay, Frenzy continued to hold onto him like a cyber-parasite, and it was only with Soundwave's intervention that Frenzy released (albeit grudgingly) him and stepped back so Soundwave could get up closer to Rumble in order to talk with him.
Soundwave asked why Rumble had said that it was urgent to meet privately by means of recorded video snippets, and Rumble answered him by telling him about the real means behind his mother's (Rotary Blades) death, and everyone present listened with rapt attention.
"Those Autobums have been tellin' you lies, bro; you and I both saw those drones with Autobot insignias attacking home," Frenzy stated, and Rumble countered, "Yes, I saw the insignias, but think about it, since when do the Autobots ever have drones in their ranks?" "Well…just because we ain't seen 'em before doesn't mean they weren't specially designed to attack us!" Rumble nodded in understanding, but he still had another proposition, "Perhaps, but I've been with the Autobots for awhile now, and they don't appear to enjoy attacking unimportant villages, Cybertronian or otherwise."
Frenzy seemed to consider this for a moment, but before he could speak again, Soundwave asked, "How ya know the' ain't lyin' to ya?" "As I told Frenzy, I've been with them for awhile, and I know for a fact that Optimus Prime doesn't lie; I can see the truth in his optics."
Soundwave didn't move or 'speak' for a few moments; he was probably trying to process all of the information his son had given him, and he found his spark torn in two directions. One side still earned to be with the Decepticons; he was ever loyal to Megatron, but if what Rumble said was true, then that meant that Megatron would have killed Rotary Blades, but he wouldn't do that. He had wanted to restore Cybertron to its former glory, not kill all of its inhabitants who didn't want anything to do with the war…right?
But then, quite unexpectedly, something Megatron told him eons ago brought itself forth from the far reaches of his processor, "Hesitate to disobey me again, and there will be far greater consequences next time…"
His instinctive thought was that he learnt his lesson, but as he dwelt on it more, he remembered that after Megatron had sliced his vocalizer, he had started to obey him a bit more reluctantly.
No one saw it, but his optics widened immensely as he put two-and-two together. He started to become more defiant; Megatron punished defiance; the death of his sparkmate brought him into his unquestionable allegiance of Megatron; and now he realized that it must have been a set up.
Megatron probably ordered Shockwave to create drones that would appear to be Autobots in order to take away the only thing that Soundwave held dear in his life…his family.
Soundwave was soon overcome with strong emotion, and as he rose with his servos clenched into raging fists, he played on his recorder, "I'm in…when do we start?"
…
Back at the Autobot base, everyone had gathered into the general area to talk about the events currently taking place.
"I can't believe Raf is one of you guys…well…Cybertronian, anyway," Jack said, and Miko nodded in agreement.
"I believe that since Rumble in the form of Raf has been with us and learnt about us, he could convince Soundwave to join our side…they would make valuable allies," Optimus Prime noted, and Bulkhead asked him, "What if they refuse? Rumble knows the location of our base, and if he stays with the Decepticons…" "I am quite certain that Rumble has seen the light, and his spark is now attached to us; it would be difficult for him to betray us willingly."
The base returned to silence after this, until Jack brought up a question that the Autobot leader hadn't considered before. "What are we going to tell Raf's family; they will start to wonder where he is?"
"I hadn't considered that; I shall see what Agent Fowler recommends," Optimus reassured him, and just then Ratchet said, "Optimus, we have a request from Rumble to prepare a ground bridge; shall I oblige?"
"Yes," he answered to Ratchet, then turned to inform everyone else, "Even though Rumble was our friend and ally as a human, he may be bringing his twin, Frenzy, and his father, Soundwave; they may not be as acceptant of us, but we must treat them without prejudice."
"But, Optimus, why should we treat them as you guys; they're Decepticons, and they never bothered to treat you well?" Miko asked, and Optimus replied to her, "Perhaps, but if we treated them poorly, we would be no better than them." As he finished, he heard the signature 'swoosh' of someone passing through the ground-bridge, and as he turned he almost stepped back in surprise due to Soundwave being right on top of him.
'He always was quiet,' he mused to himself as Soundwave tilted his helm slightly downward in a submissive gesture, signaling that he meant no harm, and Optimus greeted, "Welcome, Soundwave and Frenzy to our base. I trust that you heard what Rumble had to say about us, and about what Megatron did all those solar cycles ago?" Soundwave nodded his helm in response, as did Frenzy, who was glancing around the base with a slightly distrustful manner.
"Good; before I go into our rules and regulations, allow me to introduce you to my team, and our human allies," he nodded his helm towards Ratchet, "This is our Chief Medical Officer, Ratchet," he now turned to the 'Bots and humans by the couch area, "This is my scout, Bumblebee; the former Wrecker, Bulkhead; Arcee, who is my Second-in-Command, and their human charges, Jack and Miko," the afore mentioned names all greeted them in their own special way. 'Bee with energetic beeps; Arcee with a 'hmph,' Bulkhead and Miko with somewhat confused scowls, and Jack with a nervous yet polite wave of his hand.
"Now that you know who I have on my team, I would like to speak to you, Soundwave, privately; if that is fine with you, of course," Optimus asked, and Soundwave looked toward Rumble, seemingly asking, 'he won't do anything suspicious, will he?' and Rumble gave him an enthusiastic nod along with a shooing gesture in response, to which Soundwave acknowledged with a nod toward Rumble and Optimus, and proceeded to follow him toward a secluded section of the base.
Now that Rumble and Frenzy were alone with the Autobots, Rumble thought it would be a good time for Frenzy to get to know the others. "Come on, bro; let me give you a full intro to 'Bee; he's awesome," he said, but Frenzy was somewhat reluctant to get that close to the Autobot.
In the end, though, he gave in and went over with his brother to the yellow scout, and Rumble was giving Bumblebee a background story of his brother. "He's the best, 'Bee, and he's not like the other 'Cons; we honestly never were," he was saying.
Bumblebee gave a wave to Frenzy, and he returned it somewhat sheepishly; he wasn't quite sure how to be nice to someone. Sure, they never got into fights with any of the other 'Cons -physically, at least- but they never got to get a good example of a friendship that didn't involve punching, hitting, cursing and the like, so he wasn't sure what to do.
Thankfully, when Rumble had been Raf, he had learnt a thing or two about friendship, so he helped his brother along, and, soon enough, he and Bumblebee were having a hyped conversation about nothing in particular.
Glad to see his brother starting to warm up to the Autobot way of life (and the actual Autobots), Rumble decided to head over to his human friends by the couch.
As he suspected, Miko immediately spewed a barrage of questions at him, "How come you never told us that you were a Cybertronian; how does it feel being a 'Con; did your other body just disappear; how did you…"
"Woah, woah, woah, Miko; one question at a time! And in answer to your first few; I lost most of my memory when I turned human; it doesn't feel that bad being a 'Con, although now that I've seen them from different eyes, I think differently; and yah, my other body was a really high-tech hologram, so when everything was back to normal, it just disappeared; anything else?" he asked, and Miko continued to pound him with question after question until Jack shushed her.
"I have a question now," he said, and Rumble turned to give him his full attention, "One, do you think Soundwave and Frenzy – that's his name, right?- are going to join the Autobots, and two, have any ideas on how to tell your human family that you're not really…you know…" he trailed off, and Rumble exhaled his intakes in a sigh and answered, "I honestly think they are going to, but I'm not sure; and, I honestly didn't even think about what my human parents are going to do; they'll be so sad…"
There was silence after this for awhile, until Soundwave and Optimus returned into the main hanger.
"I have good news," Optimus announced, and everyone turned their attention toward him, "Soundwave has agreed to join our cause, and he will soon become an honorary Autobot!" this was met by some cheers from Bumblebee, who seemed to be the most enthusiastic about it.
Arcee, on the other hand, was dumbstruck, and made certain that Optimus understood her worries. "He is a spy, after all; how do you know this wasn't set up by Megatron?" she asked him in a whisper, and Optimus told her, "During our discussion, Soundwave told me that it was Rumble who convinced him that he should join the Autobots, and I know for a fact that Soundwave treasures his family far more than being loyal to Megatron."
Arcee still wasn't entirely convinced, but she let it go for now, instead announcing that she was going on patrol.
While she was gone, the others started having casual conversations with the soon-to-be new members; and even Ratchet threw a few words in every now and then.
This peaceful chatter was broken when the proximity alarm sounded, signaling that Agent Fowler had arrived unannounced for some reason.
"Agent Fowler, what brings you here?" Optimus greeted the middle aged African-American, and Fowler replied with a snobby, "And what do you think, Prime? I'm here 'cause the boys at the Pentagon are starting to worry that the 'Cons are planning something big; they haven't been active for awhile and…who's this?" he ceased talking and turned to observe the newcomers.
"This is Soundwave, Frenzy, and Rumble; they…" Prime started, and Fowler interrupted, "Soundwave? He's one of those 'Cons; what is he doing here?"
In order to calm the panicking government agent, Optimus explained, "They have defected from the Decepticons, and they are not a threat; Rumble and Frenzy are his sons, they are soon to be a part of our team."
This seemed to calm Fowler down a smidge, and his eyes wandered over to the human's area, which he noticed was lacking a certain member of the gang. "Where's the genius at? Sick or somethin'?" he asked, noticing that his guardian Bumblebee was here without him, and they were almost inseperable.
Everyone seemed to shift uncomfortably at that, and, seeing no reason to keep the truth from him, Optimus said, "There was an…incident that may be too complicated for you to understand." Fowler gave him a look that said 'I can handle it,' so he continued, "It turns out that Rafael was never a human, more like an extremely realistic hologram from a highly advanced hologram projector. He was originally a Cybertronian Decepticon, but after being with us for some time and getting to know us more personally, when he was returned to his original form, he turned his family toward the Autobot's side; the one I speak of is Rumble."
Fowler was stunned by this; he had originally thought that they were going to say he had been injured by the Decepticons or something; not that he was a Decepticon turned Autobot. "Has anyone informed the Esquivals of Raf's 'disappearence,' or are they sending cops all over to hunt him down?"
"Well, right now, we're supposed to be at the beach, so they don't know that he's not…all there anymore," Jack stated, and Rumble had turned to Soundwave to quietly ask, "Do you think that maybe I could…you know…be Raf during the day and Rumble at night, or something like that; even though I remember you and Frenzy and everyone, I have kinda gotten attached to my human family…" Seeing the downcast look of his son's features, Soundwave considered this for a few clicks, and then, to Rumble's surprise, he nodded his acceptance of the idea.
"Just be back before dark," he said, and Rumble rushed up to the railing where Fowler was and told both him and Optimus his idea.
"Well thought out Rumble; is there anything else you wished to discuss, Agent Fowler?" Optimus asked, and Fowler replied with a shake of his head; he gave the occupants of the room a professional farewell, then headed back up the elevator toward his helicopter.
"Well, now that all of this is settled, why don't we head back to the beach? We've still got a few days left," Rumble suggested, and the others who had previously went with him whooped and hollered in agreement.
Just then, a comm. came in from Arcee, "…cee to ba…I rep…is anyone there?" the commlink connection was staticky, and Arcee sounded as though she was I a tough spot. "We read you, what's your status?" Ratchet asked from by the monitors, and the garbled reply came, "…'Cons…attacking….need…ck up, can't…..much longer….I OOMF!" "Arcee! ARCEE! Scrap, we lost the connection!" Ratchet exclaimed, slamming his fist onto the keyboard in fury.
"Autobots, Arcee is in trouble; Soundwave, you and your sons will stay here with Ratchet; we don't want Megatron knowing of your defection just yet; Autobots, roll out!" Optimus exclaimed as the ground-bridge vortex swirled open, and the Autobots were off to assist their comrade.
"I hope she's ok," Jack said, and Rumble replied, "Don't worry Jack, this is Arcee we're talking about, she's tough enough to handle them."
'At least, I hope…"
…
A/N: Cliffhanger! What will happen to Arcee? Find out next time! ;)
Again, sorry this took so long to get up, writer's block+ no computer+ no time= late updates :/
Oh well, some great news is that I found an incredibly awesome Transformers Prime Season 2 Trailer! I don't know if a lot of people have seen it, but if you haven't, type in 'Wikipedia List of Transformers Prime Episodes,' and you're your on that site, scroll all the way down, click 'the EXCLUSIVE Transformers Prime Orion Pax part 1 trailer' and be amazed :P
Seriously though, if you have a problem with patience, I wouldn't suggest watching it until about a few days away from the premier. I just watched it, and for the first 3 MONTHS I was moderately patient (I only had that –totally-not-awesome-compared-to-this-trailer of Orion getting a D-con tattoo (lol), so I wasn't so hyped I would die if it didn't come on right that instant), but NOW, I CAN'T WAIT TWO MORE WEEKS, IT IS THAT AWESOME! :DDDDD THIS IS TORTURE DDDD:
Oh, and if you are reading my other story 'Witwicky Legacy,' I'm gonna have a poll about who the boy's guardians should be.
Til next time!
Starburst